Blaine Gabbert Wants to Show Critics He’s Not Scared This Season

Yahoo Sports has a piece on QB Blaine Gabbert, and how he wants to show up this season and show those that felt that he played a bit scared last season that was not the case.

Blaine Gabbert took a beating as a rookie, literally and figuratively, and the football world took notice. Pummeled in the pocket with impunity during the Jacksonville Jaguars’ hot mess of a 2011 season, the 10th overall pick in that year’s draft became a similarly statuesque target for critics. There were whispers – OK, even flat-out pronouncements – that Gabbert was scared, which is pretty much the worst adjective that can be hurled at a quarterback.

Yet as he prepares for his second NFL season, Gabbert is still standing – and sounds ready to fight back. “I think that’s part of our job description: Deal with the crap,” Gabbert said Thursday evening at the Jags’ French Quarter hotel, a day before the team’s preseason game against the Saints. “But for people to say [I’m scared], I just don’t understand it. They’ve never played in the NFL. They really don’t know what goes on, or what happens. So that argument, I think, is just a copout for people to make because they’re – I don’t want to necessarily want to say jealous – but, they couldn’t do my job. And that’s the truth. They can’t do my job. There are 31 other guys that can do my job, and that’s it. And that’s kind of the way that the quarterbacks look at it. Selfishly, I think it’s the best job in the world, but that [requires] putting in an honest day’s work on a daily basis to keep it.”